Finn Öhlund
A Psychedelic Future
Graffiti = Art :)
1 September - 25 October 2018
The immersive installation by Finn Öhlund invites us to experience a different time and space. Psychedelic patterns, graffiti, shapes of letters and light design are some of the important elements. Embedded in both common cheap materials and magical colours this art piece gives us a vision of a possible future, where closeness to nature, community and advanced technology are among the notable themes.
A hut of branches has been created in the centre of the room. Finn Öhlund describes it as a ”futuristic dwelling”, a space to enter and experience. A reference may be the grand sculpture She – A Cathedral by Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), designed 1966 for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The settlement of Öhlund is yet more temporal and brings contemporary nomadism and homelessness to mind.
Finn Öhlund, born in Uppsala 1979, is mainly self-taught. The graffiti scene in Uppsala in the 1990s made a big impact on him and the basics of graffiti was brought to him at the Ungdomens hus in Uppsala when the school Svenska Aerosolskolan was located there. In the 1980s the New York graffiti pioneer Futura 2000 expressed: ”In the future graffiti will be like an arcade hall, where colours, shapes, sound and light intervene” – ideas that characterize what Öhlund tries to embody in this exhibition.
In parallel to the image making, Finn Öhlund was one of the creators of the art- and music festival Den Stora Trädgårdsfesten in Djurby 2012-2017 outside of Enköping, where rural and urban culture was mixed. The artist himself maps a continuity from the ancient rites and life in the landscape, expressed in the rock carvings in the county of Uppland to contemporary rave culture. Spirituality, such as in shamanism or meditation are sources of inspiration. But nowadays digital media plays an active role in the experience. In the case of Öhlund it has to do with digital art making, sometimes produced in collective processes or VJ:ing (to compose visuals, video and still image live) with laser and laptop, as he did at Reaktorhallen in Stockholm. In the Netherlands, where he was a part time resident for some years, he was involved in Extrapool, a scene and exhibition space that also hosted a printing workshop.
In the period of September–October Finn Öhlund will be exhibiting in four different locations: Uppsala Art Museum, Gottsunda Centre, Uppsala Konsert & Kongress and Ungdomens Hus. In collaboration with Gottsunda HipHop, Ungdomens Hus and Uppsala Konsert & Kongress.
In November Finn Öhlund is commissioned to make a light installation at the Walmstedtska gården as one of the artists in Allt ljus på Uppsala.
Curator: Rebecka Wigh Abrahamsson, Uppsala Art Museum